I design levels in Geometry Dash
This post will go over how I made my own Geometry Dash level. The video above will show in detail the process of making a level of your own. To learn about my design process please read on.
Inspired by my own experience
My Own Game Design Process
I have been designing games from a young age, and by now I have my own process as explained in this video.
Idea
I get my inspiration from other levels
Idea
The music
This step is about your idea, you think of a song, and then you open the editor. And then while you’re in the editor, what you need to make is the gameplay.
I always get my music from Newgrounds.com, A place to share games, art, music and videos. This has led to a lot of discoveries of new artists that I listen to frequently.
Gameplay
The sync
It would be really nice if that clicking sound syncs to the most prominent instrument in your selected song. And that is what most levels do.
The video shows a level with heavy use of sync. As you can see, it makes the level easier, and it makes watching it more satisfying, as there is a clicking sound with each sound the song makes.
Gameplay
The balance
Balance is how the difficulty is spread across the level.
For example, the start of a level can be easy, the middle hard and then the end is a bit of a break but still a challenge
You then need to make sure the level fits your target difficulty: is it too easy? is it too hard? You then need to make tweaks to the enjoyability aspect accordingly.
Picture taken from InnovecsGames
PlayTest
Testing the product
This video shows footage of me editing a section of my level by playtesting and seeing what I need to improve.
Decorating
Final touches
The next step would be decorating the level. To some people this may be really hard because of the creativity required or not knowing how to use the editor to their advantage for decorating things.
Decorating comes with practice and is very hard for everyone at first. You can do many things to help you such as watching tutorials, looking at other levels for inspiration or just messing around with the decorations you can see in the menus.
This decoration that I had made took me about a week to finalise. It was simple, but it turned out to be very unique in my opinion.
Final PlayTest
Getting feedback
I had shared my decoration on reddit, and got feedback of having unique decoration. Receiving feedback has to be a very thorough thing, as you want the opinions of a lot of people through many ways, such as viewing, playing and even going into the editor and making improvements by themselves. All of these ways people can help are important, and you don’t want to miss out on them.
Iterations
What is next?
After recieving all of your feedback, you need to finalise everything. Write down all of the feedback you had recieved, and try to implement it. People’s ideas are very useful, and you want to make sure they may enjoy the level (unless you’re making the level for yourself).
Geometry Dash
My level in action
The team
Geometry dash discord server
Geometry dash reddit thread
Research & Development
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